Brazil's mining giant Vale produced a total 78.74 million tonnes of iron ore in the second quarter of 2023, up 6.3% from a year earlier and 17.9% compared to the first quarter of the year, according to the company's latest quarterly report.

Vale attributed the year-on-year growth versus last year to record output in April-June at its giant S11D mine and excellent performance at Itabira and Vargem Grande complexes.

Pellet production, a premium product, rose 9.5% from a quarter ago to 8.3 million tonnes. Pellet output also increased 5.1% from the preceding year due to higher production at Tubarão plants resulted from higher pellet feed output.

Vale's iron ore sales edged up by 0.9% on the year to 63.33 million tonnes in the second quarter, which also rose 38.1% quarter on quarter. Pellet sales dropped 0.4% compared to last year to 8.81 million tonnes but was up 8.3% from the previous quarter.

The month-on-month increases were backed by resumed productivity at Ponta da Madeira Terminal during this quarter after restrictions due to heavy rains affected shipments and sales in January-March, the report said.

Vale expected a gap contraction between production and sales in the third quarter if the inventories from the first semester could be sold smoothly, depending on market conditions.

Vale's iron ore production target for this year remained at 310-320 million tonnes and pellet output was still expected to be 36-40 million tonnes.

(Writing by Riley Liang  Editing by Emma Yang)
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